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Allen Weisselberg, a longtime executive for Donald Trump's real estate empire whose testimony helped convict the former president's company of tax fraud, is set to be sentenced Tuesday for dodging taxes on USD 1.7 million in job perks. New York Judge Juan Manuel Merchan is expected to sentence Weisselberg, a senior Trump Organisation adviser and former chief financial officer, to five months in jail, in keeping with a plea agreement reached in August. Weisselberg, 75, was promised that sentence when he agreed to plead guilty to 15 tax crimes and testify against the company, where he's worked since the mid-1980s. When he begins serving his sentence, Weisselberg is expected to be locked up at New York City's notorious Rikers Island jail complex. He will be eligible for release after little more than three months if he behaves behind bars. As part of his plea agreement, Weisselberg must also pay nearly USD 2 million in taxes, penalties and interest, which he said he has made significa
Jurors started deliberating Monday in the Trump Organization's criminal tax fraud trial, weighing charges that former President Donald Trump's company helped executives dodge personal income taxes on perks such as Manhattan apartments and luxury cars. The deliberations follow a monthlong trial that featured testimony from seven witnesses, including longtime Trump Organization finance chief Allen Weisselberg and Senior Vice President and Controller Jeffrey McConney. An outside accountant who spent years preparing tax returns for Trump and the company also testified. About 40 minutes into deliberations, jurors sent a note asking the judge to reread the elements of one of the charges, conspiracy to defraud in the fourth degree. Judge Juan Manuel Merchan obliged, reading through the charge and pausing occasionally for a cacophony of car horns honking 15 stories below. Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty to dodging taxes on $1.7 million in extras, testified that he and McConney conspired to
Auditors in Iraq have uncovered a massive scheme in which a network of businesses and officials embezzled some $2.5 billion from the country's tax authority, despite layers of safeguards. The scandal poses an early test for Iraq's new government, which was formed late last month after a prolonged political crisis. Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has vowed to crack down on corruption, but few expect any senior officials or political leaders to be held accountable. The scale of the embezzlement is remarkable, even for an oil-rich country where corruption has been rampant for decades. Transparency International, a global watchdog, rated Iraq 157th out of 180 countries on its 2021 index for clean governance. The auditors' report, obtained by The Associated Press and first reported by the Guardian, suggests the theft was orchestrated by a broad network of officials, civil servants and businessmen. In Iraq's deeply-rooted patronage system, such individuals often have links to ..